In my weekly blog, Heather’s Musings, I write about what has been happening in my life and how I am applying my mindfulness, compassion and insight practice to it. The process of writing the blog is often an opportunity for me to gain more clarity and recognise what is happening and I find it highly beneficial. My wish is that it is also helps other meditation practitioners who are on a similar journey.
The opinions and beliefs that I express in this blog are my own and do not represent the opinion of the Mindfulness Association.
Before I started practising yoga, I had no idea about the power of the breath in regulating the body. This changed twenty two years ago when I began to practice yoga and then within a couple of years trained to teach yoga. I became aware of the yogic practice of pranayama, a practice of breath…
We all know what to do to live a healthy lifestyle. Eat more fruit and vegetables and whole foods. Move or exercise more. Sleep and rest well. The problem lies in implementing these healthy lifestyle intentions in our busy and often stressful lives and making them stick. Maybe you had a New Year’s resolution? Are…
This topic has interested me for some time. How do we live well and in the living well prepare ourselves to die well, support those that we love to die well and navigate our own process of bereavement when we lose a loved one? My own Buddhist practice of reflecting daily on the ‘Four thoughts…
At this time of year, after the festivities of the year end, dark nights and spring being a while away, we can feel a bit low. One way to address this is to spend some time reflecting on activities that raise our mood and activities that lower our mood. Then get a blank piece of…
Often in January we get a sense of a new year, a new start and set some New Years’ resolutions – drink less alcohol, eat more fruit and veg, get more sleep, be more active, etc. Sometimes these resolutions last, but often not. We lapse, relapse and give up. What is becoming clearer from psychological…
The Long Term Path – Mindfulness, Compassion, Insight, Wisdom Many mindfulness courses last for just eight weeks. Here at the Mindfulness Association we offer mindfulness based meditation training over four Levels over four years. Our training is flexible to meet your needs and we start with one module of mindfulness meditation training over one weekend…
The majority of mainstream mindfulness courses on offer today have their roots in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979. It was initially developed to help people to manage stress and chronic health conditions. Jon Kabat-Zinn created MBSR to capture and embody key Buddhist teachings and to put the…
Eighteen months into this new Masters degree course I thought I would add some of my own reflections to those of our students on this course, after our second year retreat at Samye Ling. If you want a life changing course – go for this course. It’s been amazing – the sense of growth from…
Today I find myself in a house in Bempton (East Yorkshire coast) with my wonderful MAHQ colleagues. We have all taken our lateral flow tests and are together in person for the first time since February last year. It is strange, but amazing to see everyone manifest in 3D rather than on a screen in…